A boy charged in the fatal shooting of a teenager in Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood last week admitted to the killing in a Snapchat video sent from the back of a squad car after he was arrested, prosecutors said.
Anthony Mendoza, 17, is charged with first-degree murder in the killing of his friend Christian Bandemer, 16, who was shot in the chest at 11:37 a.m. Friday in the 3500 block of South Parnell Avenue.
Police had initially said the shooting might be accidental, as Bandemer was with a friend and a cousin who were showing him a shotgun before it went off. But prosecutors said in court Sunday that Mendoza should have known there was a strong possibility of killing someone with the gun, that he was the only one in the room with Bandemer when the gun went off and that he told the 20-year-old cousin “not to snitch” about the shooting.
In the court hearing Sunday, Judge Peggy Chiampas ordered Mendoza held in lieu of $250,000 bail, declining a prosecution request to hold him without bail.
Mendoza wore a blue, juvenile detection center T-shirt while prosecutors detailed how he was loading and unloading the shotgun with his friend. The cousin later told police that Mendoza was the only one in the room with Bandemer, and that Mendoza was the one with the gun.
After Bendemer’s cousin walked outside to smoke a cigarette, he heard a "pop." The cousin returned to find Bendemer bleeding and began to apply pressure to the gunshot wound.
Mendoza threw away the shotgun in high grass and told the cousin "not to snitch," prosecutors said.
Police arrived, and Mendoza was taken into custody. When he was put in the back of a police squad car, he posted a video on Snaptchat, admitting to killing his friend.
"I killed Chris and now I'm going to kill myself," the defendant said on Snaptchat, according to prosecutors.
Defense attorney Mike Johnson characterized the shooting as an "accident," adding that Mendoza had "no animosity toward" the victim.
"What this is, is a tragedy. An absolute tragedy," said Chiampas as she set bond, later explaining there wasn't enough to make her believe the shooting was intentional.
As a condition of bond, the judge ordered that there be no firearms in the household.
Before the he was taken back into custody, Mendoza, with slick back hair and a furrowed brow, looked back into the gallery, where a small group of friends and family stood in the last row.
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